


Oneshots: The Carpenters Edition

by forallweknow71



Category: The Carpenters (Band)
Genre: Caretaking, Comedy, Cute, Dating, Don't Like Don't Read, Fever, Fluff and Angst, Gen, I Don't Even Know, Light Angst, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Please Don't Hate Me, Please Don't Kill Me, Please don't, Sibling Love, Sick Character, Sickfic, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, im broke, richard please don't sue me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:13:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28823508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forallweknow71/pseuds/forallweknow71
Summary: just some cute fluffy oneshots about our favourite people: richard and karen carpenter. light angst, lots of fluff and just some general cuteness (no smut or sibling incest, so don't ask)you can request if you want, idk, people probably won't ask, but yeah
Relationships: Richard Carpenter & Karen Carpenter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Oneshots: The Carpenters Edition

Richard pulled the covers up above his head. He was dreadfully cold, despite the three blankets that were on top of him. His whole body felt lethargic and weak. 

The tour had been long and exhausting, well, all their tours were like that. Non-stop performing and rehearsing had taken its toll on both him and Karen. Today was supposed to be one of his days off. He had initially planned to go and watch a movie in the theater by himself, but this morning he had woken up feeling like shit so that idea had quickly gone out of his head. Karen had gone on some date with a guy she had met, leaving Richard all by himself in their apartment. He hadn’t bothered to check his temperature but knew for sure that it had tipped the 100-degree mark at some point.

Wrapping his shivering arms around himself, he tried to get some kind of comfort. Richard shut his eyes. Sleep sounded a bit more comfortable than this. He had been in bed the whole day, but none of the sleep he had gotten was any relaxing, so maybe he could get some that would actually help him.

He didn’t know exactly when, but he eventually fell into a thick, dreamless sleep. 

\------

“Rich?” 

“RC?”

Richard opened his eyes to see Karen standing above him, his blankets in her hands. She was still dressed in her date clothes, light makeup still highlighting her features. A small smirk played on her lips when she saw Richard struggle to sit up groggily. 

“How was the date?” he asked. Richard rubbed his eyes. He was feeling a bit better, his mind didn’t feel quite so fogged up anymore. 

Karen sighed dramatically. She sat down on the edge of the mattress and promptly dropped the covers on the floor. She didn’t bat an eyelid though. 

“It was… okay. I mean, I wasn’t interested in him in the first place, so I wasn’t going to get with him anyway so- “

“Why did you go on a date with him then?”

“Oh, I was bored, needed something to do.”

Richard shook his head, then quickly stopped. Shaking his head made him start to get dizzy. He swallowed hard and prayed that Karen hadn’t noticed anything. To his relief, Karen didn’t seem to get the slightest bit concerned and continued waving her hands around in animated gestures, talking about all the reasons why she didn’t like her date.

“Did you just sleep all day or what?” she suddenly asked, turning to look at Richard straight in the eye. 

“Yeah,” he mumbled. He turned over to his side so he could feel the cool pillow on the side of his face. Karen’s hand was right in front of him and he gently grasped her fingers, holding it tightly so he could drown out her loud voice which was making his head hurt more. He squeezed his eyes shut. 

“… I was thinking of watching some TV and chilling on the couch, you want to join me?”

Richard opened his eyes again to see Karen staring down at him. She laughed when she saw his bewildered expression. 

“Do you want to join me?” she asked again. “Or would you rather sleep?” 

She didn’t give him time to answer before she started talking again. “Oh, and by the way, how do you like my makeup and outfit? I did it myself.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Karen giggled, reaching out to gently slap Richard’s back. 

He smiled, taking in her obvious happiness and good mood. “I meant to say that it looks great.” 

Karen suddenly stopped giggling and she mirrored Richard’s smile. “You-you… you’re so nice.” 

They sat in silence for a few moments before she finally got up to pick up the covers from the floor. “I should get changed… you look like you want to sleep more so I’ll let you get that.”

Lifting up the covers she draped them over Richard and tucked him in. 

“Sleep well,” she said. The light was turned off again. 

Richard found himself not even struggling to fall asleep now. His eyes closing, he drifted off quickly. 

\------

The TV proved to be boring after a while. Karen sat on the couch, her knitting on her lap, and her full attention on it. The music from the TV blared in the background but she wasn’t really listening to it. The same shows were being broadcast again. The lamps in the living room cast a warm glow and she felt at peace. It was fun performing and being famous, but sometimes, she wanted to just chill and try to knit the sweater that she had been trying to knit for the past three years. Her excuse was that she couldn’t find time whenever somebody teased her. 

At one point in time, though, she looked up at the clock. It was past nine. She had to go and wake up Richard and make something to eat. Karen was the one who usually cooked, but Richard sometimes helped as well. They weren’t a great team in the kitchen, so they generally tried to do it separately. 

She walked into the kitchen. There practically was never any food in the fridge; they spent so much of their life on the road and the studio. Karen found it a little unnerving, but they had to make sacrifices in order to be as successful as they were.

Opening the fridge, she noticed a small container on the lowest shelf. There were two small sandwiches, wrapped with saran wrap. Karen wasn’t too hungry anyway, having had a meal during her date. Richard probably wasn’t too hungry she figured, judging by his appearance, he looked too tired to eat properly. But nevertheless, she heated up the two sandwiches in the microwave. It was important to eat. 

Karen dumped them into a plate when they were done. Normally, she didn’t like doing things like this, but she decided to take the plate into Richard’s bedroom to eat. Her brother didn’t seem like he was going to get up unless he smelled food. 

“Rich, get up,” she said when she entered the room and turned on the lights. 

“Rich.”

Karen set the plate down on the nightstand and shook her brother’s sleeping figure. 

“Rich, I brought you food.”

She ripped the covers off him and started shaking his shoulder. His shirt was soaked in sweat. 

Karen, brow furrowing, turned Richard so he was laying on his back. His face was flushed and sweaty. His lips were parted, and his wheezy breaths filled the room. Karen touched his forehead, feeling the heat come off of it. Richard was sick. 

She considered waking him up for a moment, but he looked adorable while sleeping so she decided not to disturb him. He needed his sleep. Hopefully, he would sleep this fever off and when he woke up, he would be feeling a lot better. Then again, Karen hadn’t even noticed that he was sick when she had first come in. She decided to just sit beside him and eat her own sandwich so when he woke up, she could just give him his. If she stayed here, she could also keep an eye on him. 

“The sandwich tastes horrible,” she muttered to herself when she bit into it. It wasn’t all that old, so she knew that she wasn’t giving herself food poisoning, but the taste still made her cringe and want to throw the rest of it away. But she forced herself to keep chewing. This was the only food she was going to be able to have, might as well just enjoy it. She didn’t feel like cooking tonight. 

Richard groaned in his sleep. Karen glanced over at him and noticed that he was starting to shiver. Draping the covers over him the second time, she relaxed when the shaking stopped and he buried himself into the blankets, completely unaware of anything around him. The sight brought a small smile to Karen’s face. 

She resumed eating. 

\-------

Karen wasn’t aware of when exactly she fell asleep, but she woke up a few hours later when she felt Richard’s eyes on her. Her brother was blinking weakly, staring up at her with big eyes. His face was still a bit flushed, but he didn’t look so lethargic as before.

“Rich, you hungry?”

“Wha-what?”

“Do you want to eat something? I have a sandwich for you here.” 

Richard looked away quickly. “I’m tired.” 

“It’s just a small sandwich, you can eat it and then you can go to sleep. Dinner is important,” Karen said. 

“No, I’m really not hungry.”

His sister mumbled a swear in annoyance before quickly sitting up and grabbing the plate. She was about to get up, but Richard latched onto her arm and prevented her from moving. 

“I’ll eat it later, just leave it here.” 

Karen sighed. “No, I’m going to put it back in the kitchen so no bugs teleport onto it.”  
Giggling lightly, Richard closed his eyes again. “Fine, go and put it back but come right back when you’re done.”

Karen tried her best to suppress her smile as she quickly walked out of the room. She reminded herself that Richard would need to eat it later so she put it where she could easily reach it in the refrigerator. Then she went right back to her brother’s room.  
Richard was still laying down. He still seemed exhausted to Karen’s eyes. 

“Can I take your temperature?” she asked. 

He hummed quietly. 

It wasn’t too high, only around 101 F. Karen sighed in relief and took up her position at his bedside again. 

“You’re alright, right? Not feeling too sick?”

“No, just tired.” 

Karen smiled at him. “Why don’t you have your sandwich and then you can fall asleep again?” 

Richard stared at her as he processed her request (aka her loophole for making him eat). He sighed loudly but nodded. “Fine,” he grumbled.

“I’m the one having to walk back and forth!” she laughed. Richard nodded again, closing his eyes in exhaustion again. 

Karen reached out and touched his forehead. It seemed to be getting warmer. If she wanted Richard to eat anything, she needed to hurry. 

“I’ll go and get it quickly, don’t worry.” She got up. 

In a small voice, she heard her brother mumble a small “thanks” before promptly passing out again. 

Taking care of him was hard. 

But with time, anything was possible. 

\-------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> songs listened to while writing this:  
> \- please mr. postman  
> \- the uninvited guest  
> \- all you get from love is a love song  
> \- leave yesterday behind  
> \- touch me when we're dancing  
> \- for all we know  
> \- superstar  
> \- ave maria  
> \- heather  
> \- it's going to take some time  
> \- help  
> \- ordinary fool  
> \- sandy  
> \- there's a kind of hush  
> \- i need to be in love  
> \- from this moment on  
> \- eve  
> \- those good old dreams  
> \- sweet sweet smile  
> \- this masquerade


End file.
